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In 1960 Joseph Kittinger ascended to an altitude of 102,800 feet in a helium balloon, and then did what any rational person would do....He jumped! Still the world record for highest parachute jump, longest free-fall (4 minutes 36 secs), and fastest speed attained by a non-propelled human (614 mph), making him the only man to break the sound barrier unassisted.
9058says...

Now I dont want to sound like an idiot since i actually skipped physics years ago, but I thought an object due to gravity being constant only has a max speed in which it can decend. This makes it sound like if you are high enough your speed of decent can be infinite.

snoozedoctorsays...

Yep, looks like a duplicate.
In regards to the question about acceleration due to gravity and "terminal" velocity....I wasn't a physics major either, if fact I can't differentiate or integrate myself out of a paper sack, but here goes.... Objects, regardless of mass accelerate at 32 ft/sec2 at sea level. Because the force of gravity is inversely proportional to distance squared, the further away you are from the surface of the earth, the slower would be the acceleration towards the earth's surface. If fact, objects dropped from great heights would continue to accelerate, if it were not due to the resistance of the atmosphere. Eventually, the friction with the atmosphere equals the force of the gravity, acceleration stops and "terminal" velocity has been reached. At least, I think that's how it works.

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